1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner layer thickness regulation member and an image forming apparatus having same, and particularly relates to a toner layer thickness regulation member capable of suppressing uneven density generated during forming an image.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, in a electrographic image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a laser beam printer (LBP) and so on, a pressure developing method is known as a developing method in which toner (developer) is applied to a photoconductive drum holding a latent image thereon and then the toner is attached to the latent image of the photoconductive drum to visualize the latent image. In the pressure developing method, development is performed in such a manner that, for example, a photoconductive drum is charged in a certain electric potential, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoconductive drum by an exposure device, and a developing roller supporting toner is brought into contact with the photoconductive drum holding the electrostatic latent image to attach the toner to the latent image of the photoconductive drum.
In the above-mentioned pressure developing method, in order to obtain an excellent image, it is important to adjust the amount of the toner supported on the outer circumference of the developing roller and the toner charge as desired. To this end, a toner layer thickness regulation member is frequently used which controls the amount of the toner supplied to the photoconductive drum by regulating the thickness of the toner layer supported on the outer circumference of the developing roller and adjusts the toner charge by frictionally charging the toner. Such a toner layer thickness regulation member generally has a metal plate which is supportedly mounted in one side in the width direction to neighbor the circumferential surface of the developing roller, and an elastic member arranged in the other side in the width direction of the metal plate (see, for example, JP 2005-274646 A).